Pentecost

part 1 – The power of the wind From heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind. You know, I’m sure, that the word for Spirit in both Greek and Hebrew is the same as the word for wind, or breath. Moving air, invisible to the eye, but capable of bringing […]

Read More

Jesus is risen – now what?

Jesus is risen – now what?. Sermon given 15th April 2018 at S. Andrew’s Ealing, Revd Susan McCoan  Acts 3:12-19 Luke 24: 36b-48 A few years ago, I conducted a funeral in church for a gentleman who had been at one time a regular churchgoer but who, as his health declined, had been unable to […]

Read More

Easter Day

Easter reflection – Part 1 Today is Easter Day. It’s also, as you will know, April Fool’s Day. Anybody been April fooled? It’s become a custom for newspapers to print an April Fool story; it’s getting harder and harder for them to think of something that’s more absurd than the real news. It raises the […]

Read More

29 Oct Reformation Sunday

Reformation Sunday 29th Oct 2017 Sermon given at St. Andrew’s URC Ealing by Revd Susan McCoan Bible Reading: Romans 3:19-28 Uncovering truth For our first reflection, I’d like us to think back the Middle Ages, to what life was like in Western Europe. The vast majority of people at the time were Christian, and for […]

Read More

Harvest & Constance Coltman

Sermon   17th Sept – Harvest and Constance Coltman anniversary, Revd. Sue Mccoan  Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Matthew 18:21-35 Today is a double celebration: our harvest festival, and also the 100th anniversary of the ordination of Constance Coltman, the first woman to be ordained in a mainstream denomination in Britain. She was ordained into the Congregational Church, which […]

Read More

Taking up our cross

Sermon given at St. Andrew’s URC Ealing by Revd Sue McCoan 3 Sep 2017 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 It’s over 20 years ago that Jamie and I went to Australia. We spent a week with my brother, in Perth, and then went off to do the tourist things, including two days at Uluru, then mostly […]

Read More

A gospel of hope

One of my abiding memories of my time at Westminster College was an Old Testament lecturer who came into class one day and, instead of talking to us, broke into song. He sang all the verses of ‘Flower of Scotland’. He’s not Scottish, and it wasn’t Burns Night or anything. But when he’d finished, he […]

Read More

Testing and trusting

Sermon given at St. Andrew’s Ealing 2nd July by Revd Sue McCoan Genesis 22:1-14 The story of Abraham and Isaac makes for uneasy reading. What kind of father would put his son through an ordeal like that? What kind of God would ask him to do it? The clue is in the opening line of […]

Read More

The eyes of faith

Sermon given by Revd Sue McCoan 21st May 2017, at St. Andrew’s Ealing Psalm 115; John 14:15-21 If you’ve ever spent any time with small children, or of you were ever a small child yourself, you will very likely at some time in your life have played the game of Peep-bo, or peekaboo. I think […]

Read More

The Bad Shepherds

Sermon given at St. Andrew’s Ealing Sun 7th May by Revd Sue McCoan Ezekiel 34: 7-15 My brother-in-law is a farmer, mixed arable and beef cattle now, but at one time he also kept sheep. One day when we were visiting, he asked Jamie and me to help him move the sheep from the barn […]

Read More